In 1907, Voltairine de Cleyre debated the marriage question with Philadelphia physician and freethinker Henrietta Westbrook.
De Cleyre took the position that They Who Marry Do Ill. But in asking
Is Marriage a Failure?, Westbrook answered "No."

The dead anarchists website has been launched in order to supply that extra measure of anarchist history to those who are
hopelessly addicted to learning about the men and women who have struggled for centuries, searching for ways to eliminate governments from the Earth.
This editor is such an addict, and derives pleasure by seeing others succumb to this delicious illness.

Finding an anarchist in a life situation similar to one's own can give moral strength to living anarchists. Often a young person
will be told again and again that anarchist ideas are nonsense, by people who have an endless parade of generals and heads of state to use as examples for
argument and role models for themselves. A similar pattern emerges as a teenager begins to form his or her own opinions about religion in a home that is
dominated by clergy.

History is often ruled by tales about a handful of superstars, and with anarchism, the same thing happens, but with more likeable
stars than usual. Voltairine de Cleyre once remarked that the whole movement seemed to operate out of Emma Goldman's suitcase. I held that same suitcase in
my hand once, and that was fun. Anyway, when Emma or Voltairine, or Peter Kropotkin, or some other respected anarchist writer of the time arrived to give a
lecture, they were not alone on a street talking to strangers. They slept at someone's house, ate dinner with someone, were introduced by a comrade, and
fielded questions from many like-minded people. When a squad of policemen lumbered onto the scene, scores of people would feel the truncheon crash down on
their heads. It's these smaller, local anarchist figures that make the fabric of the story, whereas the star characters make for wonderful embroidery.

As we slowly build up this garden of bygone faces, we will share lost texts by anarchists, descriptions of anarchists' grave sites,
their landmarks, homes, and events in their lives. These little pieces have been gathered over the course of some fifteen years of research, mostly focusing
on local research in my longtime home -- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But my walking tours of old anarchist neighborhoods, though successful, do not seduce
enough newcomers to the idea to satisfy my ruthless agenda, and so I have turned to the ether. We begin small, but the flow will not stop until this editor
joins his friends in the graveyard. Please let us hear what you think of all this, and above all enjoy the reading!

Robert P. Helms, editor
June 5, 2006

Available!George Brown, the Cobbler Anarchist of Philadelphia
By Robert P. Helms

The Kate Sharpley Library is pleased to announce the publication of a new
pamphlet examining the life of George Brown (1858-1915), Philadelphia
anarchist activist. Robert P. Helms traces the life of this anarchist
shoemaker from freethinking Northamptonshire to Philadelphia's burgeoning
anarchist movement of the 1890s. Never famous, and only occasionally
infamous, Brown was typical of many of the militants who made the movement
what it was, and his story sheds a fascinating light on the microcosm of a
social movement.

Leafing through newscuttings, letters and memoirs Helms has restored
Brown's life and activism to view. But this biograpy does more than
restore the name of one militant. Never a 'leading light,' Brown's story
highlights the activities of the grassroots anarchists of Philadelphia
(like Brown and his partner and comrade Mary Hansen); the views and
divisions of anarchists on sexual liberation at the turn of the twentieth
century; and fractious debates within the Arden Single-Tax colony.

'The closer we examine this particular anarchist, the more he is his own
unique self, the more fiercely determined he remains. He was somewhat
wily, could be a bit pig-headed, but never for a selfish reason, never in
a way that indicated even the slightest corruption. As yet another
traveling anarchist noted in 1900, George's "whole soul is in the cause.
He is a most genial companion, with a warm, human heart, but rigidly
uncompromising in his devotion to anarchist principles."*'*James F. Morton Jr. "Across the Continent III" Free Society, April 8, 1900

The Kate Sharpley Library is dedicated to preserving, researching and
restoring the history of anarchism and the anarchist movement and
regularly publishes information on lost areas of anarchist history.www.katesharpleylibrary.net